Small Battle, High Cost
by Phelan
Summary: A pilot nearly loses his love in combat.


Our lance had been assigned to enter the city-town (I never bothered to learn its name) and clear out all resistance. If possible, we were to surround the city hall and demand their surrender. It sounded like a cakewalk, but I had my reservations. Guess I'll introduce you to the lance before the story.  
  
Andrew "Long Shot" Kinnison, Mechwarrior. I do my work from the cockpit of a CPLT-C1 Catapult, the best 'mech I've ever ridden. Since my unit is broken into our respective lances so often, we've stuck with the idea if having a wingman at all times. My wingman, and partner in life (if she ever says "I do") is the best Phoenix Hawk pilot I've ever had the privilege of fighting with, Mechwarrior Erika "Pain" Parker. Our fearless leader, Frank "Francis" Hereford, pilots the AWS-8Q Awesome, and makes it a point to "baby-sit my younger brother" Tim "Wide-Eye" Snyder. Tim, who really isn't related to Frank, pilots the other mean machine of the group, the MAD-3R Marauder. Now that you know the whole group, I can tell you about a battle I'll never forget.  
  
We were approaching the city from the west, planning on using the hills to mask our approach and keep the militia unaware. Huh, it had seemed like a good idea at the time. Too bad we never got to the surprise part of the "surprise attack." We were approaching the peak of the last hill when Erika got on the comm, alerting us to the fact that she was picking up some encrypted radio traffic. I was busy wondering where the guy was, when Pain immediately called out "Four reactors powering up, can't tell how big just yet." Of course, nothing is ever easy in the military. That feeling of uneasiness wrapped itself around my heart and gave it a friendly hug. Well, having no one else lined up on my dance card, I plodded down the slope, the rest of the lance ahead of me. Fire support does have its advantages. Suddenly, flights of LRMs started rising out of the city, from at least two intersections, from what I could make out. "Close the distance, NOW!" bellowed Frank, as we all accelerated to top speed. Most of the missiles screamed overhead, but some scattered and hit Erika's Hawk in the chest. A few more looked ready to hit me, but I know most of the secrets of fire support. I gave the jump jets a good kick, launching myself forward and to the left. Francis and Wide-Eye took a few as well, but I knew they would tough it out.  
  
While we double-timed it to reach the bottom of the hill, two of the local militia mechs stepped out from behind the last tall buildings and cruised out to meet us. I guess they didn't want any collateral damage. I didn't mind, cause not only do I hate killing civilians, but with the enemy out of the city, I could let fly with my response to the sneaks who had fired first. Erika had recovered from the light damage with ease, and took to the sky with me. We touched down at the end of the slope, with the heavies close behind. My computer had finished ID'ing the two that had ventured out, a Valkyrie and a Dervish. Both were known missile boats, and they wanted to prove it to us. I love my Cat dearly, but I do know it could always use some more ammo. So, I waited until the 5 PPCs of Tim and Frank had started firing until I took aim. One flight each, because we could certainly use some more mechs for the outfit. The Dervish bathed in charged particles from Frank, one to the right leg, one shot to the left torso, and the last one to the right arm. The Valkyrie was better off, taking only one hit to the right torso. My missile flights came in next, spreading more damage across the chest of the Dervish, while the lucky Valkyrie received light damage to the left arm. "Hey Pain, take that Valkyrie, will ya? He needs to learn how to take a hit," I called, not wanting to have to face a fast 'mech that could get at my weak rear armor. Besides, Pain's got the right kind of firepower for facing other light mechs. LRMs just don't work at knife-fights.  
  
"Lemme have that Val, you go clear out the others downtown," said Tim. "And take Pain with you, I'll work on the Dervish." added Frank. "Roger, breaking off. Try and leave something recognizable, Wide-Eye," Erika replied. "C'mon, honey, we wouldn't want to keep them waiting now, would we?" I said, even though I knew what was coming next. With a remarkable display of dexterity and control, Pain's Phoenix Hawk flipped me the bird, a gesture we both knew I could never return, not having hands on my Catapult. I keyed in a private radio link between the two of us and gave MY response, "Maybe tonight, but for now, you skirt to the north, I'll go down the main drag." "Got it, loverboy." "Can it you two, and find out what's hiding in the city." I guess Frank had noticed the transmissions between our two 'mechs. Good thing he couldn't understand our words through the encryption.  
  
I let the Catapult strut down the main street of the city. On the sensor readout, I watched the IFF signature for Erika's 'mech take off down another street seven or eight blocks north. I started scanning for heat signatures, seismic, anything to give me a warning of a possible ambush. I got lucky. I was just switching to Infrared when I saw a new heat source, several blocks in front of me. An old JaegerMech stepped out, and raised those ridiculous arms. I opened the missile hatches on both launchers, checked the range, and grinned like a maniac. That poor fool had stepped out at the worst possible distance, and it looked like he didn't know it yet! A little over 200 meters, and this poor sap was just outside the minimum range of the LRMs, but was also within range of the lasers. I took an extra second aiming to ensure he learned his mistake, and with the clear, solid tone of a good lock, mashed both thumb buttons and pulled the triggers on each joystick.  
  
All four beams smashed into the upper torso, two cutting into the left torso at the shoulder joint, one bubbling armor from the cockpit, and the last one digging a furrow of molten armor across the center of his chest. One second later, the Jaegermech disappeared behind my missiles in a massive ball of smoke and flame. Windows blew out for blocks around, the smoke hanging in the air. I felt the next load of missiles finish feeding into the launchers, and saw the lights on my console blink a silent message to me that my lasers were again ready. I sat still, gasping for breath and waiting for the heat sinks to give me cooler air. I reminded myself to consider ways of putting more heat sinks on my ride when I heard and felt a crash almost as loud as my missiles. The Jaegermech had been blasted onto its back from the loss of what had to be nearly all its armor. I switched back to normal optics as the smoke began to clear, and almost felt sorry for the pilot. It was lying flat, its left torso a ruin of metal, the arm blown away. The right arm wasn't going to be any use either, as both autocannon barrels had been mangled, and the arm itself was almost bent into the chest. I leveled my lasers at it and prepared to fire, but then simply continued walking past it. The entire head had been erased, and a good portion of the chest below it was gone too.  
  
I don't know what was going on with Frank and Tim, but I could hear the distinctive crackle of multiple PPCs discharging rapidly...Frank must've gotten pissed at his target. I got back on the radio with Erika to tell her my findings, and to see what she might've stirred up. "Nothing here...@#$&#$%...ap, it's a....*(&^...sader! A Crusader is....@!&*%..." Crud, I *had* to get the easy one! I bolted west, then turned north at the first intersection, feet sliding on ferrocrete. "Where is he? If he hurt you..."  
  
I saw her Phoenix Hawk up ahead, peppered with missile and laser scars all over, leaning against a very recently abandoned office building. It looked like someone had almost breached her center torso, and with the hairs standing up on my neck, I all but screamed at her to dump the ammo for the machine guns in her arms. As I watched, a narrow stream of shiny bullets rained down from the rear of her 'mech. From where she stood, I had appeared on her right, and so I started scanning the area in front of her, waiting for the enemy to appear on my scanners. Nothing, he must have shut down, or put enough buildings between us to make scanning useless. As Erika finished dumping the last of the ammo, I heard her gasp over the radio, as I spotted something along the edges of my condensed 360-degree visual screen. The pilot had somehow known which way I was coming from, and then came around into my rear arc! I hardly had time to take a breath as the mech fired its medium lasers and its SRMs. I don't know why he didn't fire his LRMs; he had me in the perfect ambush. The lasers dug into the weak center-rear armor, almost completely melting it away. The SRMs followed, scattering damage to both legs and my right arm. I prayed, amazed that I wasn't dead yet. Thanking the designers for not putting lower arm actuators into my Cat, I rotated my two boxy arms up, over, and down to aim at the enemy. The instant I got a tone, I fired. While the enemy concerned himself with my missiles, I spun around and flipped the arms back down, again targeting the Crusader. I'll never doubt dumb luck again; over half the missiles blew the right arm completely away, smashing it into a nearby building. The rest of the missiles ground away at the torso, breaching nothing but giving him a good case of the shakes.  
  
My heat shot up again as I fired my lasers at him, not bothering with accuracy, just want. I wanted to pound this pilot into atoms for nearly killing Erika, and almost blowing my backsides all over my beloved! Half of the lasers swept into the right torso, compounding the damage done by the amputation of the arm. I was ready to jump for joy when I saw the second laser dig deep, then the torso blossomed outward, a hail of metal and mortar as the LRM ammo in it's chest cooked off, spinning it to the ground. The blast consumed the 'mech, but I saw the pilot pop up, riding the command couch ejection seat as it carried him to safety. As the ruined 'mech hit the ground, I watched the absolute devastation of a fusion engine set free. Even though I was a block away, in a 65-ton monstrosity, the shockwave still bowled my mech over. Working the controls furiously, I tried my hardest to avoid falling on my back, and just succeeded. Shaking, I asked someone to answer the phone that was ringing in my head. I dimly heard Erika asking me if I needed help, being an armless cripple. That woke me up quick! For an instant, I thought I was waking up in a hospital, and she was telling me about my body, not my 'mech. I snapped my eyes open, then realized I was still in my 'mech, lying on its side, and I got the picture: she wanted to know if I needed help getting my mech upright. I felt stupid, but managed to get up, despite the loss of my left arm. I decided it was time to check up on the others, "How's it going boys? You missed some fun in here!" Frank came on the line, and gave us the news, "Tim's dead, the Valkyrie pulled a Death From Above, something gave inside and his ammo went off. The Val got blown away by the explosion, and I got the Dervish. What went on in there? I picked up some *big* fireworks. You having a party without inviting me?"  
  
I gave him the short version, and asked if he'd form up on us to get to the city hall. Ten minutes later, we had reached the building. Within two hours, we had the mayor broadcasting on the news that the region was to unconditionally surrender. We had won, but I had nearly lost everything dear to me. Just to make sure, I asked her to marry me, and this time she said yes. I could have carried her mech to the dropship for that! We asked around, and managed to turn up a priest. We were married on the steps of the city hall, in front of every news camera in the city. I made her promise to me that the next time we went into battle, she would get to save my carcass. 


End file.
